Stewards to our Rage

 You can listen to this post too The redwoods stood so tall. Some, I heard, were over 1200 years old. When I climbed up into the ‘mother’ tree, one of the oldest in the forest, easing my back against her broad trunk, I noticed the tarnishing and burnishing on her bark. This tree has been through fire, and has survived. It was scarred through time, and has survived. Not only that, now this ancient being is offering solace and shelter and comfort to others. It’s strength is in it’s stillness; it’s beauty in it’s stature.The word ‘steward’ came to me, and ‘perspective’. As we are stewards to these trees, they are stewards to us. Their protection is a cycle. When I relaxed a little deeper into the redwood, the tears came. I cried, not out of sadness but of joy and awe for this grand perspective of time. These trees speak a language which the ancient parts of us understand. It made me think of the great Navaho ‘Seven Generations’ tradition- a way of longitudinal thinking which, like an arrow, catapults us through a long arc of time. It asks us to think about how our actions will land seven generations down the line; the span of a redwood life.Back in Ireland, on International Women’s Day, I attended an entrepreneur event in West Cork. There were amazing, talented and motivated women in the room. They spoke of the power of emotional intelligence, of speaking up and out, and of the drive to get their visions out in the world. I tried to listen, but there was a rage rising in me; a rage which was stemming from a little pink aerosol bottle which had been placed in front of each of us. The bottle was a spray-on fake tan. The female entrepreneur behind the product is a passionate and driven individual, with a lot of skill at getting a product out to market. But I could not help but read the ingredients- many synthetically produced. As the can is pressurised, there is also a fatal warning on the label and a flammable warning sign too.The rage continued to rise. What are we doing to ourselves? What on earth are we creating in the name of ‘beauty’? How long will it take for that bottle to degrade? What chemicals is it releasing into the air that we breath and the skin which houses us? The entrepreneur has won awards and recognition for her product, but I thought, what could that entrepreneur do if she put her talents and determination into creating a product which heals rather than harms our mother earth. Who, if not the women, will be the stewards in this long arc of time?The other evening I found myself listening to a podcast on Sounds True with Joanna Macy. Macy,  now 88, has been instrumental in a movement called the The Work that Reconnects, incorporating Buddhist teachings and scientific thinking into environmental and social change work. There is an effervescence in her voice; a joy and air of reverence which comes from years of hands-on experience. I could listen to her forever. We have a choices, Macy explains, to participate in parallel narratives of our time. She names them as ‘the 3 stories’ which are simultaneously being written at each level of society. We have a choice as to what story we turn our attention towards. The first of these ‘3 Stories’ is Business as Usual- the story of our industrial growth society. It is the paradigm of profit and power in which economic growth is given prominence and provides for the wealth gain of the few- the 1%. This is the story of corporate rule, perpetuated by mainstream media. Next, there is The Great Unravelling. This is the story of the disintegration of our systems, including our ecological habitats. The Great Unravelling is narrating the death of our oceans, the obliteration of our environmental diversity and of climate change. It is the tale of the sixth extinction arising from the perils of the unchallenged ‘Business as Usual’ way of thinking.Then there is the story of The Great Turning. This is the story which understands the other two stories but refuses to ‘let them have the last word’. It is the story of conscious action and of communities of practice- from business to activism-  who have the longitudinal arc in mind; who are actively choosing to turn attention, power and skill towards the work of crafting this new narrative and the corresponding, sustainable, systems necessary for our time.The writer Ben Okri’s words come to mind here too when he asserts; “A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick.... Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart larger’.The question then becomes, ‘What is the story we want to participant in?’ or even, ‘What is the story we want to write to make our hearts larger?’Throughout the On Being gathering, there was much talk of this Great Turning story. ‘What is the new story we want to narrate’, asked our host Krista Tippett, echoing Joanna Macy’s work. We heard snippets of The Great Turning being crafted in the simple interactions and kindness of strangers, in the saying ‘No’ to racism and hate, in the reaching out to ‘otherness’ both internally and externally, and in thinking in these longer timeframes. The peace-builder John Paul Lederach, for instance, only takes on projects in which the leaders on both sides are thinking in decade cycles; underscored with an appreciation that we need to work beyond political election cycles for real change to make progress. We heard too from Parker Palmer, Courtney Martin and Omid Safi who spoke about the importance of actively cultivating intergenerational friendships to help us tap into different perspectives and wisdoms, and Dr. Lewis Mehl- Madrona paid homage to the original indigenous peoples who inhabited the land we were on, reminding us so directly that we are not the first ones here, and if we are careful, we will not be that last ones here either. Stewards, all of us.Back at the Entrepreneur event in West Cork all I could see were little pink bottles. When it came to the questions and answers section, my heart was racing. I sat on my hands so that I would not raise them. I knew that if I did speak, anger would blurt out in a pacy rant. I get emotional that way- overcome sometimes, and in those cases, I am learning that it is best to pause, collect my thoughts and frame my emotions into a question- one that can highlight the challenge and potentially nudge the culture of what we find acceptable forward. Only on this day I seemed to be in overwhelm and my anger had hijacked my coherence. I turned to the lovely woman beside me, and the rage spilled over onto her (sorry lovely lady). Then, after the event, after calming down a little, I turned to another group of friends to ask for their advice: ‘How would you have framed the question’? Orlagh simply and gracefully offered- ‘How about… ‘have you considered a environmentally friendly version?’ Bingo. That’s all it would have taken. ‘Have you considered…’  Those little words pack a lot of punch. They nudge. I wished I had thought of that question at the time. Instead, I sat silent, and raging.I know I need to work with this anger and surging emotion. I want to learn how to channel it more, and speak in ways which settle into the nudges. So since both the US trip and this entrepreneur event I have been asking myself, ‘How do I harness this anger and emotion, in the moment? How do I learn to speak up and out in ways that nudge the conversation forward?I brought these questions to my own mentor. Her advice was a gesture back to the trees: be like the redwoods. She encouraged me to sit, so as to expand my capacity to be in the unruly discomfort, to be in the resistance, in the questions, in the anger. Sit for thirty minutes, she suggested, before you get into the whirl of the day. She means; sit to listen; sit to learn how to respond.‘Stand still’, writes the poet David Wagoner, ‘The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost/  Wherever you are is called Here/ And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, must ask permission to know it and be known’So, I make my way to my to ‘here’. I sit still (ish). In the sitting, I am finding that there is also a turning. The rage is getting re-shaped into a willingness to allow it to inform and highlight what I need to learn. The sitting is exposing the gaps, and then it is slowly giving me courage to go into those gaps to see how I can fill them.  As it is unsettling, I know it is also nudging. “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. Leonard Cohen knew of these things too.In this case, the crack came in the shape of a little pink bottle. And the light? Well, perhaps that is the rage.And then there is the little question of ‘Have you considered?So, have you considered the story you want to nudge towards, The Great Turning, the seven generations, and the trees which will still be standing if we can learn to be stewards to our rage. Stay in touch: Sign to my newsletter for more resources and happenings!  From this article… Listen to the interview with Joanna Macy on Sounds True here. Her book ‘World as Lover, World as Self’ is a wonderful outline of her Great Turning thinking.You can read my reflections from the On Being Gathering over here. Omid Safi also shared this reflections on his encounter with the redwoods in this elegant post. Want more poetry? Read David Wagoner’s full poem. I also recommend Mary Oliver’s collection ‘Felicity’ where you’ll find, ‘When I am among the trees’SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

On Being Gathering- Reflections

Travelling has a way of uprooting us from the familiar and offering new doorways into perception, insight and connections.As many of you know I recently had the privilege of travelling to the first On Being Gathering, hosted in the new and magnificent 1440 Mulitversity outside Santa Cruz, California, surrounded by 1200 year old redwood trees.For four days we immersed ourselves in conversations, connections, poetry and nature. It was a time for listening, for questioning, for asking how we collectively can play our role in shaping the world to embrace our full humanity with compassion; asking ourselves some of the big connective questions of our time.In travelling to the gathering I was aware of the many wonderful people in my own community who were cheering me on and wishing also that they could be there. I was very aware that I was, in some way, representing all of these people- especially those in Ireland, and I wanted to offer something back to this community on my return. This too evolved into having a desire to offer something back to the new community which I met at the On Being gathering.And so, since returning, I have spent some time attempting to syntheise the key themes and patterns from the conversations that were happening on an off stage. What emerged is a work of amalgam, and in putting this out, I must acknowledge the wise words and presence of all the speakers, participants, On Being staff and our host, Krista Tippett.It is also a work in progress as I am sure that, with time, I’ll be able to see different patterns and ripple effects from the conversations and experience, allowing them to inform my own path onwards.I have created my first Medium publication (thanks to my friend Orlagh who told me about the possibility of this) as a digital version of these reflections-View Medium Publication hereAnd I have also created a PDF version for download and printing, which also includes a little more of the poetry which was shared or referenced at the Gathering, and have added this to my resource library.Sign up to my newsletter to receive the link I’d love to hear any responses you have, or what questions it stirs for you. And I also hope you find it useful in your life and work as you navigate your own questions and choices in this powerful time we are in.Until soonClare. xxSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave